A Cappuccino, Please
by stardivarius
Summary: After a few trying hours of work, Hermione invites Harry and Ron for a coffee on their days off. With their own separate lives ahead of them, a cruel memory resurfaces and serves as a brutal reminder of what they've left behind.


Hermione Granger was thinking. She sat at her haphazardly organised table and contemplated pouring a finger of Firewhisky into her scourgified mug.

She wondered if she'd get salmonella as she downed the shot with a grimace. Casting a quick tempus, groaning at the early hour – she thought she'd been sitting there for ages –, _only two-fifty_?

She glanced at the stacks of folders warily and lazily pointed her wand at them. What if she set them on fire? Her boss would crucify her. _Better not_ , Hermione thought, wisely lowering her wand.

She needed to get out more.

Her deadlines weren't for a few more days, a couple of hours with her friends couldn't do any harm. Harry worked from home now that Ginny was on leave and Ron had Thursdays off. Furthermore, she hadn't seen her friends in weeks, _it was perfect_! She jumped up from her chair and bounded over to her fireplace with a skip in her step.

"Hello, anyone home?" Hermione called into the floo. The Weasley-Potter household was always loud and the unusual silence was a bit disconcerting. After a few seconds of almost eerie calm, feet shuffling and several chairs being knocked over on wooden floors broke the quiet. Hermione shook her head fondly.

A familiar face looked up at her from the charcoals.

"Oh, Hermione! How are you?" Ginny kneeled in front of her fireplace, happy to see her old friend.

"Work's been driving me barmy," Hermione said with a huff, Ginny offered her a grin. Hermione glanced at Ginny's protruding belly, "baby number two on the way?

Ginny put both hands on her growing stomach and rubbed a big circle.

"Harry wants to have a whole brood! He's got his heart settled on his own Quidditch team, bless him, but I'd like to be back on my own team," Ginny told her with an exasperated smile.

Harry had grown up an orphan in a family that didn't want him. Her heart ached for her gentle friend. She imagined that Harry never wanted for his children to ever feel alone. Her heart twinged painfully.

"You guys are doing wonderfully already," Hermione said encouragingly.

They really were. With Harry as one of the Wizarding World's foremost Defense-Against-the-Dark-Arts spell-maker and Ginny taking maternity leave from playing on her top ranked Quidditch team, they had respectable careers. Ronald had become an Auror after a short stint playing for the Canons which he discovered wasn't as cool as he expected even after he lead them to their first Championship. He was now a Senior Auror, heading his own assignments. He was far from the boy who graduated from Hogwarts without a clue what to do with his diploma. He'd done well for himself and Hermione was proud of both her boys.

"I'll fetch Harry for you," Ginny said with a knowing grin. Nothing, not even marriage could ever separate the Golden Trio.

Ginny stepped back from the fireplace, dusting her knees and bellowed for Harry to answer the floo. Hermione flinched at the volume. After a few moments light footsteps made their way down.

"'Mione!" Harry said planting himself on the stone floor, "been busy?"

"I've got a few deadlines at the end of the week but that's handled," Hermione said, "look, I was wondering if you and Ronald wanted to get together in about an hour for coffee?"

Harry grinned at her, brilliant green eyes shining, "Of course! I'll be ready in a mo and you can floo Ron. It's his day off," he told her already standing up.

"Wonderful, apparate to my flat about four?"

"See you then!"

Hermione waited a few moments for the floo-call to end and emptied another handful of floo-powder onto the charcoals.

"Ron?" Hermione called.

A grinning face appeared in her fireplace after a few moments. Somehow even his freckles were visible.

"Hermione!" Ron crowed happily. Hermione grinned to herself, he was always going to be an excitable Gryffindor.

"Lav! Hermione's on the floo!" Ron called to someone behind him. Hermione rolled her eyes affectionately as she heard Lavender say "yes, darling" exasperatedly. The two had gotten together shortly after Ron started Auror Academy, Lavender's father was head of the DMLE and she frequented the training grounds fairly regularly as a personal liaison between Harry and Mr. Brown. Ron had pined for weeks on end for his former classmate. Lavender had done the same. Around this time, Hermione had been seeing Draco Malfoy in secret in the supply closet. They'd since taken their relationship to more public places.

Hermione and Ron ended their relationship a few weeks into their final year at Hogwarts. Harry was supportive as always. They both realised that they were better suited as friends and it didn't help any that Hermione only saw Ron as a brother. Molly was more distraught than Hermione and Ron put together which made them easy victims to Harry and Ginny's relentless teasing. Thankfully, Molly loved Lavender.

"I was wondering if you wanted to join Harry and I for coffee at four?"

Lavender cut in quickly before Ron could get a word out, "take him please, he's been such a pain today!"

Ron looked appropriately chastised, an embarrassed blush creeping across his nose. Hermione had to swallow a laugh. Ronald tried to be a helpful husband but more often than not, he got in the way. Lavender had confessed to Hermione that she found it adorable.

"I'm sorry about that, love," Ron said sheepishly, rubbing a hand on the back of his neck. Lavender patted his red hair fondly as she bustled around the kitchen.

"Be at my flat at four and I'll take us there," Hermione told her friend with a pointed look. Ron nodded his affirmative and she ended the call with a smile.

…

An hour later Ron and Harry were sitting on the stoop outside Hermione's flat, playing an intense game of I Spy. Hermione rolled her eyes so hard she swore she saw her past lives. They were such children.

A few minutes after – and only a bit of Harry and Ron's bickering (apparently Ron was still a sore loser) – the trio made their way down to Hermione's favourite café, the gorgeous smells of coffee beans roasting inviting them in. Hermione heard Ron sniff a few times curiously, almost dog-like.

"Tea or coffee?" A waitress asked after a few minutes of them chatting.

"A cappuccino, please," Hermione answered with practiced ease. Ron looked wide-eyed at Harry who was equally uncertain. The waitress scribbled something on a notepad and glanced at Ron.

"What she said," Ron said quickly. The waitress nodded and looked at Harry expectantly. Harry glanced at Hermione. Hermione was suddenly taken back nearly to their very first encounter on the Hogwarts Express to a thin, green-eyed boy in baggy clothes and broken glasses. Hermione's heart painfully again twinged. Ron looked down at the table glaring hard.

"Same," Harry echoed after a beat of silence.

 _Fin._

…


End file.
